Learn Urdu
Urdu is written in nastaliq, a sloping joined script in which letters change shape according to where they sit and words cascade down towards the left. That is the front-loaded part; the language underneath shares a great deal of vocabulary with Hindi and no small amount with English. iLexiBox starts at the letters and the shapes they take, because the script is where beginners stop.
Start at the alphabet
The Urdu on-ramp is written by hand, not generated, and it is 203 cards long. Every card is spoken in a recorded Urdu voice, and what you get right is scheduled for review rather than shown again at random. This is the shorter, starter size of on-ramp; most languages here have about 480 cards.
- 39letters
- 10digits
- 14pronunciation rules
- 100core words
- 20everyday phrases
- 20sentences
Three of the pronunciation cards, exactly as the on-ramp teaches them:
- ھ — do-chashmi he adds a puff of air to the letter before it — ک/کھ, پ/پھ, ت/تھ are different words, not accentsکھانا — food
- ٹ ڈ ڑ — the retroflex series — tongue curled back to the roof of the mouth. These are the T and D an English speaker already makesٹماٹر — tomato
- ت د — the dental pair — tongue flat against the BACK OF THE TEETH, softer than English t and dدروازہ — door
Your first Urdu phrases
The first phrase and sentence cards of the on-ramp, each spoken in a recorded voice:
- آپ کیسے ہیں؟ aap KAI-se hain — how are you?
- میں ٹھیک ہوں، شکریہ main ṬHEEK hoon, shuk-ri-YA — I'm fine, thank you
- آپ کا نام کیا ہے؟ aap kaa NAAM kyaa hai — what's your name?
- میں طالب علم ہوں۔ main TAA-lib-e ILM hoon — I am a student.
- یہ میرا گھر ہے۔ yeh me-RAA GHAR hai — This is my house.
Then material that does not run out
Above the on-ramp sit the practice path (A1 to C2), Make a text at your level and the album: more than 2,700 photographs, each captioned and spoken in Urdu. Urdu has practice and tools, not lessons — the only course on iLexiBox is the full English course (how each part works).
What Urdu actually costs a beginner
Two sound systems have to be built rather than mapped across. Aspiration is written with the do-chashmi he ھ, and کھ is a different word from ک rather than the same one said harder. And the consonants split three ways where English has one: the retroflex ٹ ڈ ڑ, tongue curled back to the roof of the mouth, are the T and D an English speaker already makes, while the dental ت د are softer, with the tongue flat against the back of the teeth. Neither distinction survives on the page, so each is a card with a recorded Urdu voice.
The full English course, A1–C1 →